Billy (Black Christmas)

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Billy is a fictional character from the Black Christmas films. He first appears in Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) as a deranged murderer who breaks into a sorority house and begins to make obscene phone calls before killing the college students one by one. In the original Black Christmas, Billy, referred to as The Prowler in the closing credits, was portrayed by Nick Mancuso and was portrayed by Robert Mann in the 2006 reboot. The character was created by A. Roy Moore and has appeared in two films, a mockumentary and a novel.

The character is the primary antagonist in the Black Christmas film series. While the character remains ambiguous behind his identity and motivation in the original film, the remake explores the childhood of Billy. Bob Clark's intention was to never reveal what Billy looks like, so in the 1974 film, Billy's physical appearance is never shown, only showing his eye, while in the 2006 film, his appearance is fully revealed.

Video Billy (Black Christmas)

Appearances

Billy made his first appearance in the 1974 original film Black Christmas. In the film Billy, a mentally disturbed man known as "The Moaner", regularly calls a local sorority house leaving disturbing and obscene messages. During one such phone call one of the sorority sisters, Barb, provokes him, he threatens to kill them. The caller then goes on a killing spree, murdering many of the sorority house's inhabitants. The character later appears in a 1976 novelization of the film written by Lee Hayes. With the police not knowing who the murderer, Billy makes one more call to Agnes.

Billy later appeared in the 2006 remake of the original film. In the film, the character's history is expanded, his real name being William "Billy" Edward Lenz (Robert Mann), suffering from severe jaundice due to a liver disease. Despite his father loving him, Billy is physically and mentally abused as a child by his mother, Constance Lenz, who blames him for being born. After watching her and her lover(the man who became his stepfather) murder his own father, she locks Billy away in the attic. Attempting to have another child with her lover, he falls asleep on the job and forces Constance to rape a newly teenaged, Billy. This lead to his sister/daughter, Agnes' birth. The two murder their mother and stepfather. Billy is placed in a mental asylum, but, now 35, breaks out 15 years later. Billy joins Agnes in attacking the sorority, but both are badly burned by Kelli and Leigh. Billy revives and attacks Kelli, put is pushed over a railing and impaled on a Christmas tree.

Maps Billy (Black Christmas)

Characterization

Bob Clark's intention was to never reveal what Billy looked like. Throughout the course of the original film, Billy's appearances are all silhouette, with only a glimpse of his eye being seen when Jess comes face to face with him. Billy is depicted as a verbal, mentally unhinged, mass murderer who says disturbing things incoherently during the phone calls he makes to the sorority house. He is shown to be able to change his voice frequently. Although his physical appearance is not revealed in the 1974 film, in the reboot Billy is shown to have severe jaundice due to a liver disease.

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Reception

In Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror, Jason Zinoman praised the character saying that, "What really made Black Christmas stand out was the killer, who, despite all expectations to the contray, the audience never actually sees-except for one shot of his eyes peeking out of the crack in the door to the attic. We know he's up there and that he occasionally comes downstairs to butcher people, but we never know when." In Horror Films of the 1970s, John Kenneth Muir, who criticized certain aspects of Black Christmas for being unbelievable, called Billy an effective villain stating, "the "Moaner" is a really creepy villain. His sick, oddball voice is frightening, and the things he says are downright horrid." He then said that the phone call scenes work because "we've all been plagued by crank callers, and some of us have been plagued by crank callers while in our homes."

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References

src: screenrant.com

External links

• Billy on IMDb

Source of article : Wikipedia